The Man Who Pointed the Telescope at Nothing

In 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a decision that many of his colleagues thought was foolish — maybe even reckless. As director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, he had a certain amount of discretionary time with the Hubble Space Telescope. He chose to point it at a tiny patch of sky near the Big Dipper that appeared completely empty. No stars of interest, no known galaxies. Just darkness.

For ten consecutive days, Hubble stared into that dark square — a patch of sky no bigger than a grain of sand held at arm's length. Fellow astronomers warned him he was wasting invaluable telescope time. Some said it could end his career.

When the images came back, the scientific world gasped. That "empty" patch of sky contained over three thousand galaxies, some dating back to within a few hundred million years of the beginning of the universe. The Hubble Deep Field became one of the most important photographs in the history of astronomy.

Sometimes courage means staring into what looks like nothing and trusting that God has placed something there. The Psalmist wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1). But sometimes those heavens look dark and silent before they reveal their glory.

You may be staring into what feels like an empty season — a career that seems stalled, a prayer that seems unanswered, a future that looks blank. The courage isn't in having proof that something is there. The courage is in keeping your eyes open long enough to see what the Almighty has been doing in the dark all along.